Adam Smith, Australian Council for Educational Research
Today, as part of an Australian Education Union (AEU) campaign, academics, business and political leaders have signed a letter urging state and federal governments to move on the Gonski reforms to school…
There’s been plenty of attention on NAPLAN testing this week, but ACARA’s Barry McGaw argues there needn’t be.
Test image from www.shutterstock.com
There has been much controversy this week over a study released by the Whitlam Institute claiming that NAPLAN testing is being treated as a high-stakes program that is causing unnecessary stress among…
John Hattie: Welcome to The Conversation. My name is John Hattie from the University of Melbourne and I have here today, Pasi Sahlberg from the Department of Education in Finland. It’s certainly exciting…
The story about the sacking of a Melbourne private girl’s school principal has made national news, but why?
Flickr/mikecogh
For more than a week, I’ve seen numerous articles about an internal fight between the Board and Principal of Melbourne’s Methodist Ladies’ College, a private girls’ school. Principal Rosa Storelli has…
NSW Education Minister Adrian Piccoli (left) has slashed funding for state schools.
AAP/Paul Millar
Our Liberal-run states are locked into a self-made and self-fulfilling prophesy of budgetary crisis. It seems that running a deficit budget which is at the heart of liberal Keynesian economic theory is…
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says school funding should recognise that “children are individuals not standardised widgets”.
AAP
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has thrown down the gauntlet to the states and territories as she prepares to negotiate for increased school funding as part of the government’s long-awaited response to the…
The government needs to respond to the Gonski report on schools funding and start improving student outcomes.
Schools image from www.shutterstock.com
It’s been six long months since the Gonski panel made its recommendations on schools funding, but in the next few weeks the federal government will finally respond and release the details of its school…
The PM should look to her successes in education and build on them by adopting the Gonski recommendations.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
Howʼs this for a radical thought to start the week - a robust contest of ideas around how we educate Australian students to an internationally competitive standard. Too quixotic? Perhaps, but it would…
Schools funding is back in the headlines, but what’s needed is a wider debate about equality.
AAP Image/Paul Miller
Imagine a field of wheat which has been watered unequally. Some parts will grow to their potential, but some won’t. In the end, it’s bad for the whole field’s productivity. Economist James Galbraith’s…
The debate on schools funding has taken a strange turn with both sides racing to increase funding to private schools.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
In a political echo of the unseemly bi-partisan “race to the bottom” over asylum seekers, we now have a “race to the top” with the prime minister and opposition leader vying to offer the most support to…
It’s been 6 months since the release of the Gonski report, and the 6700 public schools represented by this ‘sea of hands’ now await the government’s response.
AAP
Australia doesn’t just need “a Gonski response”, it needs a plan for continuing improvement in our schools, says Prime Minister Julia Gillard. In a speech to the Independent Schools National Forum, Ms…
David Gonski’s review is starting to fade into the background, but there are a growing number of calls to implement the review’s recommendations.
AAP Image/Alan Porritt
The last time school funding occupied so much public and political attention was during the Whitlam years. Policy makers with long memories will recall that the gestation period for the Karmel report was…
The government supports an NDIS, but funding must be extended to schools.
AAP/Paul Miller
On being asked the question, “what do you think of disability support in Australia?”, I would have to quote Gandhi’s fabled response when he was asked what he thought of Western civilisation: “I think…
The Gonski report was illogical. Now schools have to work out what to do with it.
Foto_di_Signorina
Last month’s review into school funding by esteemed businessman David Gonski was released with much fanfare. But as the dust settles, it is increasingly clear that the report is, overall, a disappointment…
The Gonski review presents a generational opportunity to reform our school funding system.
AAP/Graham Porrit
The Gonski Review sought to create a new funding system for Australian schooling, because what we currently have is a mess. It was to be transparent, fair, financially sustainable and effective in promoting…
David Gonski has conducted the most far-reaching review into school funding in Australia since the Whitlam years.
AAP
School funding has been a tortured issue for government, and especially federal Labor governments, for most of the past half century. Since the seminal Karmel Report of 1973, the funding levels and relativities…
Catholic schools worry that funding could decrease in real terms, leading to a spike in fees.
AAP/Alan Porritt
Independent and Catholic schools have tentatively embraced a proposal to overhaul Australia’s system of school funding, but have called on the Federal Government to act quickly and to protect schools from…
While the wheels of bureaucracy turn, schools wait for more funding.
Andreas Ebling
A two-year process of research, consultation, public input and expert consideration and analysis is a reasonable route to follow for a government-appointed independent inquiry into a major policy issue…
A new model of funding would give extra money to disadvantaged students.
AAP/Jenny Evans
Every school student in Australia would be allocated enough needs-based funding to be educated to a national standard, under a landmark proposal to pump an additional $5 billion of government money into…
School funding is under the microscope for the first time in nearly 40 years.
torres21
A much-anticipated review of Australian school funding, spearheaded by businessman David Gonski, was handed to the Gillard government today. We asked Australian education experts to respond to the report’s…